Hobson, John M. 1962-

PERSONAL:

Born December 27, 1962. Education: London School of Economics, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, Elmsfield, Northumberland Rd., Sheffield S10 2TU, England. E-mail—j.m.hobson@sheffield.ac.uk.

CAREER:

La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, instructor, 1991-97; University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, instructor, 1997-2004; University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, began as reader, became professor of politics and international relations, 2004—.

WRITINGS:

(With Linda Weiss) States and Economic Development: A Comparative Historical Analysis, Polity Press (Cambridge, MA), 1995.

The Wealth of States: A Comparative Sociology of International Economic and Political Change, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1997.

The State and International Relations, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2000.

(Editor, with Stephen Hobden) Historical Sociology of International Relations, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

(Editor, with Leonard Seabrooke) Everyday Politics of the World Economy, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to books, including Anatomy of Power: Essays on the Work of Michael Mann, edited by J.A. Hall and R. Schroeder, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 2006; Europe and Asia: Towards a New Cosmopolitanism, edited by G. Delanty, Routledge (London, England), 2006; and Writing Civilizations, edited by M. Hall and P.T. Jackson, Palgrave (New York, NY), 2008. Contributor to journals, including Cambridge Review of International Affairs, International Politics, Review of International Studies, Journal of the Historical Society, Theory, Culture and Society, Millennium, European Journal of International Relations, Cooperation and Conflict, New Political Economy, Journal of European Economic History, and Review of International Political Economy.

SIDELIGHTS:

Professor of economics John M. Hobson has taught at La Trobe University and the University of Sydney, both in Australia, and at the University of Sheffield in England, where his courses have included "Advanced Political Analysis," "Civilization, Empire and Hegemony," and "Theories and Issues in International Political Economy." According to the Web site of the University of Sheffield, he is involved in the critique of Eurocentrism in world history/historical sociology, and international relations.

Hobson is a contributor to a number of journals and books by others. His States and Economic Development: A Comparative Historical Analysis, written with Linda Weiss of the University of Sydney, is an examination of economic performance as it is affected by political institutions. It focuses on political and economic development in the United States, Britain, Russia, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. The book consists of two parts. The first contains chapters "The Rise of Europe I: State Formation and its Legacies, 800-1800," "The Rise of Europe II: State-Making and Economy-Formation from 17th to early 20th century," and "The Rise of European Industrialisation: Britain and Russia, 1700-1913." The second part includes "The Rise of East Asia I: States and Markets," "The Rise of East Asia II: Governed Interdependence," and "The Decline of Anglo-American Capitalism," followed by the authors' conclusions.

This volume adds to the study of the state's economic role, interest in which accelerated during the 1970s and 1980s due to the growth of NICs (newly industrializing countries).

David Long reviewed States and Economic Development in the Australian Journal of Political Science, writing: "Weiss and Hobson dispense with a number of arguments made about the role of states in economic development, notably the opposing and misplaced claims of liberals for the centrality of the market and the statists (and some Marxists) for the state. Furthermore, they refine the definition of state strength to include Michael Mann's notion of infrastructural power, that is, legitimacy and penetration into the institutions of society; an understanding of state strength that sees it as complementary to rather than in competition with strong social formations and classes." Long concluded his review by describing this as "a well-researched, well-written book."

Hobson is the author of The Wealth of States: A Comparative Sociology of International Economic and Political Change and The State and International Relations, and the editor, with Stephen Hobden, of Historical Sociology of International Relations.

In The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, Hobson challenges Western denial of Eastern influences by acknowledging the contributions of Eastern peoples to the progress of the Western world. He focuses on two turning points that include Western assimilation of Eastern inventions, including institutions, ideas, and technologies, from 500 to 1800, and the rise of European imperialism after 1453 that led to the appropriation of major Eastern resources, including labor, land, and markets.

Writing in the Historian, Catherine Pagani commented: "The author's stand is clear: for too long the East has been marginalized and its accomplishments either ignored or deemed irrelevant. For the author, the West likely would not have ‘crossed the line into modernity’ without intervention by the East." As Hobson shows, our history and understanding of the roles of East and West have been primarily written by Western historians who have de-emphasized, or entirely ignored, the advanced civilizations of the East. Writing for the Culture Mandala: The Bulletin of the Centre for East-West Cultural and Economic Studies Web site, Reg Little noted that Hobson's book is particularly important because of evidence that East Asia, and China in particular, may be replacing the United States as the leader in the global economy. Little described Hobson's book as "valuable because it provides a timely reminder that there is nothing exotic or threatening about a world where China resides in ‘inscrutable’ authority at the centre. That, in fact, has been the reality for much of humanity's recorded history. The inscrutability has largely been a product of Anglo-American imperial disinformation and intellectual apartheid. In reality, the universal values—democracy, the rule of law, free trade—that have been marketed to the global community in recent decades are simply the political tools of an Anglo-American empire that is now threatened with decline after two hundred years of inventive expansion."

Hobson is the editor, with Leonard Seabrooke, of Everyday Politics of the World Economy, a collection of original essays by contributors who include Hobson, Seabrooke, Andrew Herod, J.C. Sharman, Michele Ford, Nicola Piper, Paul Langley, Adam David Morton, Ara Wilson, and Shogo Suzuki, and which demonstrates how everyday activities shape the world economy. The writings argue that most scholarship in international political economy focuses on large and powerful states and institutions, and the authors correct this approach by studying the contributions to the economic and political environments by the working class, trade unions, migrant laborers, peasants, and Eastern diasporas, who live within them. The book offers a unique way of considering how everyday change impacts international finance and trade, globalization, taxation, labor rights, consumerism, regimes. Its multidisciplinary approach makes it valuable to students and scholars of sociology, political economy, politics, and international relations.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Journal of Sociology, May, 1998, George Modelski, review of The Wealth of States: A Comparative Sociology of International Economic and Political Change, p. 1717.

American Political Science Review, June, 1996, Peter Evans, review of States and Economic Development: A Comparative Historical Analysis, p. 464.

Australian Journal of Political Science, March, 1997, David Long, review of States and Economic Development, p. 139; November, 2003, Brett Bowden, review of Historical Sociology of International Relations, p. 587.

Choice, December, 2002, E.C. Dolman, review of Historical Sociology of International Relations, p. 705.

Contemporary Sociology, September, 2003, Daniel H. Nexon, review of Historical Sociology of International Relations, p. 649.

East Asia: An International Quarterly, summer, 2006, Kathryn Edgerton-Tarpley, review of The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, p. 106.

Economic History Review, November, 2004, Kent G. Deng, review of The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, p. 799.

English Historical Review, February, 2007, John A. Hall, review of The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, p. 150.

Historian, spring, 2006, Catherine Pagani, review of The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, p. 199.

International Review of Social History, December, 2006, review of The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, p. 507.

International Studies Quarterly, November, 1998, Hayward R. Alker, review of The Wealth of States, p. 333.

Journal of Economic History, September, 1998, Suzanne Gleason, review of The Wealth of States, p. 919.

Journal of Economic Literature, December, 1997, review of The Wealth of States, p. 2177.

Journal of Modern History, September, 2006, J.R. Mcneill, review of The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, p. 695.

Journal of Politics, November, 1998, Alan C. Lamborn, review of The Wealth of States, p. 1271.

Pacific Affairs, spring, 2005, Erica Brindley, review of The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, p. 119.

Review of Radical Political Economics, spring, 1999, Kenneth Surin, review of The Wealth of States, p. 119; fall, 2007, Amit Basole, review of The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, p. 609.

Virginia Quarterly Review, winter, 2001, review of The State and International Relations, p. 26.

ONLINE

Culture Mandala: The Bulletin of the Centre for East-West Cultural and Economic Studies,http://www.international-relations.com/ (March 27, 2008), Reg Little, review of The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation.

University of Sheffield Web site,http://www.shef.ac.uk/ (March 27, 2008), author's curriculum vitae.

World History Connected,http://worldhistoryconnected.press.uiuc.edu/ March 27, 2008), Timothy Weston, review of The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation.